


The two of them (Soushi's perspective)

by mutsukisan



Series: Him [1]
Category: TsukiPro the Animation
Genre: Gen, implied nozoren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 07:25:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18846376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mutsukisan/pseuds/mutsukisan
Summary: Ren and Nozomu’s relationship in the eyes of Ren’s “brother.”





	The two of them (Soushi's perspective)

**Author's Note:**

> (alt: Soushi aka "Is this man good enough for my brother" )

Calling Soushi and Ren’s relationship as ‘friendship’ would be an understatement. Soushi cared about Ren a lot and saw the smaller as his younger brother. Moreover, with how timid and reserved Ren was, he felt it as a natural duty of his to protect him, He knew him ever since they were kids and knew how timid Ren was before.

 

However, things are different now.

 

The timid boy who would cling to him when he left has now grown. Ren was still timid but Soushi knew that he was braver than ever. Definitely braver and tougher than the little boy he met when he was younger. Soushi recalls his memories with Ren.

-

 

_He grunts at the stink he smelled on his hands. He just wanted to go to the convenience store when his mom had told him to take out the trash. Disgruntled, he went inside the house to wash his hands when he caught a glimpse of something small moving out of a neighbouring house, Soushi ignored it, thinking that it may just be a family going out._

_It didn’t seem to the matter when he came out of the house when the small thing he saw was in front of the house. The small thing is a child, about a year younger than him, curled up into a ball and possibly crying, nonetheless, he can’t just leave him alone. Soushi sat near the boy and tried to talk to him._

_“Hey… you alright?”_

_The boy seemed surprised as he jolted and nearly hit Soushi, who was equally surprised and was glad he managed to dodge the attack. He looked at the perpetrator who was trying to stop his tears from falling. He called out to him to calm him down._

_“Hey, hey, it’s alright… I’m not bad! I’m your neighbour!”_

_The boy eyed him with curiosity. Soushi sighed in relief._

_“Yeah, I live right there.” He pointed at their house. When the boy nodded, he continued speaking, “… so why were you crying?”_

_The words may have triggered something as the boy continued to cry. In these times, Soushi wished Sora was here. While he wasn’t the best in social interactions, Sora was far better than it than he realized._

_“Ah, sorry… I’m sorry… I’m not going to talk about that so will you please tell me what’s wrong?”_

_“….kendo…”_

_“What?”_

_The boy looked at him with teary eyes. “I cannot practice kendo very well…” He said as he continued to cry. Soushi kept a straight face and patted the child’s head which felt weird because he is a child. He doesn’t know what kendo is, but if it makes this child cry a lot, then it is something important._

_“Hush, don’t cry… do you want to do something else?”_

_“Wah?”_

_This was his chance to cheer the kid so, “There’s a playground near here, it’s fun to play there so let’s go!” He held out his hand, where the boy curiously looked at. To his relief, the little boy grabbed his hand._

_“Uhm… whash your name?” The boy asked._

_“You can call me Soushi.”_

_“Sou…nii?”_

**_That makes me feel like a brand, but sure I guess._ **

_“Alright then, what’s yours?”_

_“My name ish Ren.”_

_“Nice to meet you, Ren. Now, let’s go.”_

 

 

And that’s when their relationship started.

Soushi later found out what kendo actually was. He would often visit Ren to play with him, and the younger was quite attached to him, following him a lot which he found adorable. As they grew, they both grew a lot closer, and Soushi noticed that Ren may have an attachment towards him. He especially noticed this in middle school, when Ren would follow Soushi frequently when the younger finished his kendo practice early. He thought about it, but it may have been his fault why Ren has this attachment towards him. While the younger is timid, he may have been overprotective and spoiled him a lot. Nonetheless, the two were close.

However, something happened which Soushi can blame puberty for it but Ren desperately tried to stop calling him ‘Sou-nii.’ While it made him sad, he understood that something might have happened to Ren that made the latter change with how he addressed him. Soushi acted the same as always so that Ren wouldn’t be bothered, but reflected on how Ren might have depended on him too much.

Ren didn’t cry in front of him when Soushi graduated, and with Ren taking exams for high school, he figured that it would be better if he didn’t let him know which school he was going to study. Ren would probably go to a private school after all.

 

-

 

A year and a half after, they met again. It happened in their sports day, the final round of the dodgeball competition had two boys from different classes battling until Soushi’s class lost. As Soushi and Morihito went down to Sora to congratulate him, so did the friend of his rival.

_“Sora, good work out there.” Soushi congratulated as he gave his childhood friend a towel. Morihito followed suite and gave Sora a watered bottle, “You did your best, Sora.” He said._

_“Uh… wah! Mori… Sou! Sorry! I lost!” Sora wailed at them as the two of them laughed. As the three of them talked about their performance in the game, he heard the friend of Sora’s opponent congratulating him._

_“Nozomu…!”_

_Soushi froze a little as he heard a familiar voice._

_“That was incredible! You did amazing!” That voice. It definitely felt familiar. However, not believing that he would study here, Soushi brushed it off until…_

_“Ren! Thanks for cheering me on!”_

_Ren._

_A name he didn’t expect to hear in this place. While talking, he glanced at the duo’s direction, “—huh? Are you…”_

_The boy seemed to hear him and looked back and his eyes widened in surprise._

_“Wha—… Sou-nii?”_

_He couldn’t believe it._

_“Is that you, Ren?!”_

 

 

There were a lot of things Soushi realized about Ren. First, they ended up studying in the same school and he really missed that younger, second, the younger had a friend.

A friend.

Ren had a friend.

Normally, Soushi would be overjoyed about Ren making a friend. However, he couldn’t help but wonder especially when Nanase Nozomu is the complete opposite of Ren. He was like Sora, but more cheerful, proactive, sporty, and denser than Sora. The boy himself wasn’t a bad person, but the fact that he is friends with Ren piqued Soushi’s curiousity. Especially with how close the two are.

 

There was something else that he noticed. Soushi had been worried for the past year if Ren was doing alright, mentally and socially. Yet he found a Ren who smiled more than before. Ren used to be a lot awkward whenever he is in public and which is why he would stick to Soushi a lot. However now, Ren is taking step by step with interacting more with others.

 

He grew a lot and Soushi was definitely proud of that. However, even though it didn’t matter much, he was curious on how. Nozomu was definitely a big factor in it. Soushi noticed that the two might be much closer than how people see them. Ren could call Nozomu casually and while he tries being casual to Morihito and Sora too, he definitely addressed them with respect. Moreover, Ren is comfortable with calling Soushi ‘Sou-nii’ again, although he still tries to change it. Soushi would tease him about it and the younger would pout at it, but nonetheless accepted it.

Soushi had his opinions about Nozomu, but he can’t deny that the younger took care of Ren in his own way.

 

SOARA was created and the five grew closer than ever, so was the two’s relationship.

In the next sports tournament before the dodgeball event, Nozomu secretly came to Soushi, Sora, and Morihito to ask them to cheer for Ren during dodgeball. He remembers it well.

_After separating from the two, the trio spent some time assisting their classmates. They planned to watch the dodgeball match after they finished helping out. While they were about to leave, their bassist called out to them._

_“Sora! Mori-senpai! Sou-senpai!” Nozomu called out, running to them._

_“Wazzit? What’re ya doing here, Nozomu?” Sora asked._

_Nozomu clasped his hands together. “Could y’all cheer for Ren and I later?”_

_“Eh…? Of course we will will!” Sora responded. While the three of them chatted a bit, Soushi was observing Nozomu._

_“Alrighty! Gotta go!” Nozomu said and began to leave._

_“…Nozomu!” Soushi called out._

_“Yeah?”_

_“Why did you ask us to do this?”_

_Nozomu looked back and smiled, “I wanna cheer up Ren!”_

_Soushi smiled back at Nozomu, fully understanding his intentions._

At first, he thought Nozomu’s personality was the one helping Ren, however, he realized that Nozomu cared about Ren as much. Nozomu typically did everything in front of everyone when an idea popped inside his head, however this time, Nozomu went out his way to plan and tell it secretly to the three.

It wasn’t just the dodgeball event that Soushi saw how much Nozomu treasures Ren.

_“I wonder if I can catch up to you.” Ren smiled when the bassists mentioned his dreams._

_Nozomu held his shoulder, “If ya don’t, it’s bad right? This is a dream I wanted for SOARA, so of course Ren will be in it!”_

_Soushi, Sora, and Morihito swore they saw Ren’s eyes sparkle. “Nozomu!” He beamed cheerfully._

_“…When did Ren and Nozomu get this close?” Sora commented._

 

 

Sora’s words left a question in Soushi’s mind. What was really the two’s relationship? They were obviously friends, but with how they act towards each other, there’s something else.

If Soushi’s hunch was right, he wanted things to go well, especially with Ren. The younger seems more flustered than usual with Nozomu’s touchiness. It made him worried if things would go well. Especially with Ren’s case.

Ren is sensitive about his relationship about other’s and overthinks things a lot. He wonders he can leave him to Nozomu, especially that he can’t read how Nozomu feels about Ren.

_*Click*_

Soushi’s wandering thoughts stopped when someone stepped inside the room. He looked at the newcomer and saw Nozomu with some bags which looks like it came from the convenience store. He met Nozomu’s gaze and the latter smiled cheerfully as he greeted him.

“Hello Soushi-senpai!”

“Welcome home… what did you buy?”

Nozomu walked towards the refrigerator and started storing the items he bought. He showed Soushi one of the items which is a red-bean ice cream.

“Red-bean ice cream! One for us who eats a lot and vanilla for ya and Mori-senpai!”

Soushi nodded at his response and observed him when he noticed something.

“…Hey, isn’t the red-bean ice cream 4? Why did you buy an extra?”

“This?” Nozomu pointed. “This other share is for when we all eat ice cream together! ‘Figured that Ren might be tired from uni so I wanna give him something to cheer him up.” He smiled brightly.

Soushi stared at Nozomu before chuckling to himself. He thought to himself, ‘ _if this is the person Ren treasures a lot, I can leave Ren to Nozomu without any worries… besides… Nozomu might feel the same for Ren.’_

Ren is like Soushi’s younger brother, and he wanted the best for Ren, especially with the person Ren loves.

 


End file.
